See the September 2001 Washington Post notice of the death of Andrew Gray, and read about his December 1999 presentation to the Wagner Society.
Bayreuth 2003 opera
WSWDC Members who are happy recipients of tickets for Bayreuth, 2003,
met on June 29th for a briefing and buffet to prepare for attending this year's Festival. The Society
remains grateful to Wolfgang and Gudrun Wagner for the ticket allotment and hopes for more to
enjoy in 2004.
View the Bayreuther Festspiele Web site.
WSWDC Annual Banquet
- Sunday, June 22, 2003, at the Arts Club in Washington DC.
See more details.
Wagner in der Wildnis
- Friday through Sunday, June 6-8, 2003, at Cacapon State Lodge in
West Virginia.
The third year of our popular weekend event for members and their guests
in a rural setting -- a getaway and seminar focused on Siegfried. Simon Williams and Jeffrey
Swann return to inform and delight Wagnerians about the third opera of Wagner's Ring.
See details, including a link to the venue information.
John Pohanka,
on Wagner, the Mystic
- Thursday, May 29, 2003, at The George Washington University.
John Pohanka, Washington
philanthropist and WSWDC Board Member, spoke on how experiences of listeners to Wagner's music
who feel that they have had a mystical experience are the result of Wagner's metaphysics, which he
developed over many years, culminating in his last, great work, Parsifal.
See information flyer on this talk.
The Sixth Thomas Stewart and Evelyn Lear
Emerging Singers Concert
- Friday, May 16, 2003, at the German Embassy; Washington DC.
The all-Wagner program presented four singers: soprano Gail Sullivan
in her second appearance; mezzo-soprano Roxanne Rowedder; tenor Michael Hayes;
and baritone Charles Robert Austin, who sang Hunding in the Virginia Opera's 2002
Die Walküre. The noted teacher and pianist Betty Bullock again accompanied the
singers. An artists' reception immediately followed the concert. See
information flyer.
Gala Evening and Auction
- Friday, May 9, 2003, at DACOR Bacon House; Washington DC.
A Gala Benefit consisting of a silent auction and buffet, followed by
greetings from Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart and the presentation of an outstanding emerging
singer, was held May 9. Members and friends were invited to contribute as Friends ($100) or Patrons
($250) and to submit items for the silent auction. Proceeds from the event will be used to support
Society programming, including the Emerging Singers Program.
Parsifal in New York
- Saturday, April 12, 2003 at noon, Metropolitan Opera House.
Members of the WSWDC traveled to the New York Metropolitan Opera for a
wonderful performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal.
Carol Berger,
"At the Heart of Die Walküre:
Forgiveness vs. Redemption -- Cyclical Quests and Shadows"
- Thursday, March 13, 2003, at The George Washington University.
Carol Berger, artistic director of the Millennium Wagner Opera Company
and the Millennium Wagner Project, Inc., is a specialist in musical rhetoric, baroque opera, and
the work of Wagner and Richard Strauss. This presentation was her second for the Society. She
recently lectured on Die Walküre to the Wagner Society of America in Chicago. For the
Wagner Society of Northern California, she presented a talk titled Parsifal and Wagner's
Enduring Message to the World. Ms. Berger discussed Die Walküre as the point of
no return in Wagner's views on the relationship of poetry and music, the concept of Self and
annihilation, and transcendence over stasis, including Wagner's embrace of Eastern core principles
and Schopenhauer. She also discussed how the arguments presented in Die Walküre
lead inexorably to the philosophic conclusions of Wagner's last opera, Parsifal.
Read the Berger Press Announcement
Jeffrey L. Buller,
Dean, Mary Baldwin College "Sleep in the
Ring"
- Thursday, February 20, 2003, at The George Washington
University.
Dean Jeffrey Buller, lecturer and author of Classically Romantic:
Classical Form and Meaning in Wagner's Ring (2001) and other wide-ranging works examined
the theme of sleep as a musical metaphorical and philosophical principle in the
Ring, with special emphasis on Die Walküre. Read the
Buller Press Announcement.
Carolyn Abbate,
Professor, Princeton University, on
"Die Walküre and the Dream of the Secret"
- Thursday, January 16, 2003, at The George Washington
University, Funger Hall.
The WSWDC was pleased to welcome, for the first time, Carolyn
Abbate, Musicologist and Professor of Music at Princeton University, regular participant on
Metropolitan Opera broadcast intermissions, translator, and author of a wide spectrum of
subjects in music, philosophy, performance, and Richard Wagner. She is the author of the
recently published In Search of Opera. Professor Abbate spoke on
Phillip W. Raines, "A Productional Ride
through Die Walküre"
- Thursday, December 12, 2002, at The George Washington
University, Funger Hall.
Wagner Society and Board member, Phil Raines, presented a learned
and entertaining program in which he contrasted some of the difficult moments that challenge
directors of Die Walküre. The program was generously illustrated with musical
and video examples. Raines Press Announcement
Saul Lilienstein on "Die
Walküre on the Mind of Mann"
- Thursday, November 14, 2002, at The George
Washington University, Funger Hall.
This noted conductor and scholar discussed Die Walküre
and its influence on the work of the great novelist, Thomas Mann. The lecture was like a
performance -- mixing improvisation with scholarship -- and it took a fresh look at a favorite
Wagner opera. Lilienstein Press Announcement
Virginia Opera's Die Walküre
and WSWDC events
- Sunday, October 13, 2002, at George Mason University
Two unique musically and visually illustrated events by two of
the Society's favorite lecturers, surrounding the Virginia Opera's performance of Die
Walküre.
Iain Scott, Canadian Wagner Expert, gave a pre-opera
talk on Die Walküre. Mr. Scott was introduced by Father Owen Lee.
Then WSWDC attended a wonderful performance of the
Virginia Opera's Die Walküre.
This was the only Wagner opera to be performed in the Washington area this season.
The cast included: Marc Embree as Wotan, Susan Marie Pierson as
Brünnhilde, Tracie Luck (update) as Fricka, Jeanine Altmeier
as Sieglinde, and tenor, Thomas Rolf Truhitte, of the Society's Evelyn Lear
and Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program, as Siegmund.
The opera was followed by dinner, for Society members,
with the Virginia Opera's Die Walküre cast.
Read the Washington Post's review of the opera, as
performed in Norfolk.
Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart Fifth
Emerging Singers Program Concert
- Friday, October 11, 2002, at The German
Embassy
The program presented singers Alison Bolshoi,
soprano; Nathan Bahny and Robert Demers, baritones; and
David Kelso and Lawrence Harris, tenors. The singers were
accompanied by pianist Betty Bullock; the program featured selections from Wagner's
works. See the Concert program.
An Evening with Evelyn
Lear
- September 19, 2002, at The Levine School of
Music
 |
Ms. Lear shared her experience as a leading opera soprano and teacher. She talked of the many noted people she has worked with; how it was to be in a movie with Paul Newman; what it was like to say “no” to Herbert Von Karajan; and how it felt to turn down an invitation from Wolfgang Wagner to sing at Bayreuth where her famous husband, Thomas Stewart, reigned as the world’s greatest Wotan in Wagner’s Ring. Evelyn Lear illustrated her talk, with video and sound recordings of her splendid work, for a very appreciative audience. |
The Wagner Society of Washington DC
P.O. Box 33051
Washington DC 20033
Phone: 301-907-2600 FAX: 301-907-8671
http://www.wagner-dc.org
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